"... willingness to take a moral stand, to accept risk and ridicule, [is] the cost of the moral life." -- Chris Hedges
Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will -- Schopenhauer. (One can choose what to do, but not what to want.)

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Sun King and the Outlaw (prose poem)

The Sun King and the Outlaw

King Louis in his finery, the pearl and grey of his raiment satinin the shade, luxurious in his bound empire, hemmed in by Alpsand Channel of plastic net bound to fenceposts by cable ties.Robin (the Hood they call him, for he covers his shoulders andhis tight-feathered head with brown as if to conceal the red blazonon his breast, and to no avail his yellow-rimmed eyes) tilts hishead and asks with half-parted lips What's this, What's this I seebehind the forest of grass and the high hard fence?

The emperoranswers not, the fat worm of his scepter still on the grass, notwaving high and flicking tailtip back and forth. A still as if he seesRobin not, as still as if he is unaware that this outlaw fills him witharrow-strokes of contempt. The king lays and lies as he lays, feigningsleep or illness, his humors balanced behind slitted eyes. There isno swaying of rump or setting of hind claws in the earth. He is inert.Robin hops closer, closer to the thicket of grass behind fence. Cockshis head again, looking to me observing from the England of my deck,and back at the sun-stunned and pent king. It can't reach me? Robinthe Hood asks. Then I shall have some fun. He hops closer and closerto the fence.

The Sun King sleeps in his private Versailles. A hop and a hopcloser, a tilt forward. The twisted spring of His Highness uncoils, anexplosion in three dimensions, and he is through the weakness at thecorner of the fence, sleek and gray. He strikes down Robin with a blow.But Robin flies. The King's claws were pulled by the treaty that broughthim to the throne. Robin flees for the safety of his home country the skywhile earth-bound cat and bemused human sit in the capitals of theirLilliputian nations, and laugh or snarl as to their natures.